Sarah Stewart (1905 - 1976)

A Mexican American researcher who pioneered the field of viral oncology research, the first to show that cancer-causing viruses can spread from animal to animal. She and Bernice Eddy co-discovered the first polyoma virus, and Stewart-Eddy polyoma virus is named after them. Took a circuitious route to find her calling in science.

She did her undergraduate work at the New Mexico State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1927. She went on to earn a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1930 and a Ph.D in microbiology from the University of Chicago in 1939. In 1949, she became the first woman to be awarded an MD Degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine.

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Wikipedia

The Woman Who Revealed the Missing Link Between Viruses and Cancer, Smithsonian magazine (2019)